Tri State
DeRosa: ‘There’s going to be plenty of competition for me’
Mountain Ridge graduate shipped out Wednesday for Alderson-Broaddus XC
By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com
FROSTBURG, Md., Aug. 20 – It’s a milestone of significant proportion for Mountain Ridge High School cross country coach – and father – Norm DeRosa.
Mountain Ridge graduate shipped out Wednesday for Alderson-Broaddus XC
By Kevin Spradlin
TriStateRunnur.com
FROSTBURG, Md., Aug. 20 – It’s a milestone of significant proportion for Mountain Ridge High School cross country coach – and father – Norm DeRosa.
The veteran distance runner helped his 18-year-old son, Chris, pack for his first semester at Alderson-Broaddus College in Philippi, W.Va. The Division II appealed to the younger DeRosa because of its financial aid package, which includes an athletic scholarship, and focuses more on cross country than track.
Of other schools Chris considered – Mount St. Mary’s University, DeSales University, Saint Francis (Pa.) University and D’Youville College in New York – he said it was the school’s highly regarded health sciences program that led him to commit this spring to the school, located 101 miles southwest of Frostburg in Barbour County, W.Va.
Chris began the fall campaign Wednesday, the first day of the summer cross country camp under coach Jim Seaton. But for Norm DeRosa – was the guidance he and his wife, Patty, the correct advice?
“It’s kind of like this,” said Norm DeRosa, nostalgic during a recent conversation regarding his son’s academic and athletic path. “As with academics, and everything with life, you do what you think is the best for your kids and you kind of let ‘em go. You hope what you did is the right thing. Time will tell.”
“I’m just real happy that he loves running enough to want to continue running it for four (more) years.”
To hear Chris tell it, the match between himself and AB cross country is a perfect one.
Of other schools Chris considered – Mount St. Mary’s University, DeSales University, Saint Francis (Pa.) University and D’Youville College in New York – he said it was the school’s highly regarded health sciences program that led him to commit this spring to the school, located 101 miles southwest of Frostburg in Barbour County, W.Va.
Chris began the fall campaign Wednesday, the first day of the summer cross country camp under coach Jim Seaton. But for Norm DeRosa – was the guidance he and his wife, Patty, the correct advice?
“It’s kind of like this,” said Norm DeRosa, nostalgic during a recent conversation regarding his son’s academic and athletic path. “As with academics, and everything with life, you do what you think is the best for your kids and you kind of let ‘em go. You hope what you did is the right thing. Time will tell.”
“I’m just real happy that he loves running enough to want to continue running it for four (more) years.”
To hear Chris tell it, the match between himself and AB cross country is a perfect one.
“I really love cross country,” said Chris, with a track personal best of 4 minutes, 41 seconds in the 1600-meter run, a 2:04 in the 800 and a 5K PR of 17:32, set in June at the Iron Furnace 5K road race in Lonaconing. “Because just running longer races tests your endurance a lot more.”
DeRosa will regularly contest the 8K (4.97-mile) distance as a collegiate student-athlete. This summer, he visited Utica, N.Y., and ran the popular Boilermaker 15K (9.3-mile) run.
“It was a really great race,” Chris said, adding the up-and-down nature of the road course, which he completed at a pace of 6:15 per mile (58:10 overall).
His place in the overall standings – 280th overall among 10,587 finishers, good for a top 2.6 percent finish – could be an indication of how he might fare in college.
“I think it will be a lot tougher,” Chris said of collegiate competition this fall, after placing 11th in the 2009 outdoor track state championship in the 1600 (4:47.57) and helped the Miners to a sixth-place finish in the 3200 relay (8:31.12). Chris was 25th in the 2008 cross country state championship with a time of 18:34.
“In high school, I made all-conference, and there’s no way … there’s going to be plenty of competition for me,” Chris said.
Follow Chris’s fall racing results at www.ab.edu and click on the “athletics” tab.
Contact Kevin at run@mountainMDmarathon.org.
DeRosa will regularly contest the 8K (4.97-mile) distance as a collegiate student-athlete. This summer, he visited Utica, N.Y., and ran the popular Boilermaker 15K (9.3-mile) run.
“It was a really great race,” Chris said, adding the up-and-down nature of the road course, which he completed at a pace of 6:15 per mile (58:10 overall).
His place in the overall standings – 280th overall among 10,587 finishers, good for a top 2.6 percent finish – could be an indication of how he might fare in college.
“I think it will be a lot tougher,” Chris said of collegiate competition this fall, after placing 11th in the 2009 outdoor track state championship in the 1600 (4:47.57) and helped the Miners to a sixth-place finish in the 3200 relay (8:31.12). Chris was 25th in the 2008 cross country state championship with a time of 18:34.
“In high school, I made all-conference, and there’s no way … there’s going to be plenty of competition for me,” Chris said.
Follow Chris’s fall racing results at www.ab.edu and click on the “athletics” tab.
Contact Kevin at run@mountainMDmarathon.org.
